Which Immigrants do Citizens Prefer? A Meta-Reanalysis of 96 Conjoint Experiments

In the last decade, an important literature in the social sciences has examined public attitudes toward immigrants in host societies. In it, a prominent experimental method---the conjoint design, where participants are tasked with rating or choosing between randomized profiles---has been used reliably to understand how immigrant characteristics shape admission preferences. We collate replication datasets from 96 individual studies spanning 1,424,293 immigrant profiles with 25 randomized attributes evaluated by 135,272 survey respondents from 32 countries. Meta-analyses reinforce well-established findings: economic, cultural, humanitarian, and procedural factors all influence evaluations. Our meta-reanalyses yield three novel insights. First, there is a broad-based consensus on immigration preferences between countries and a near-consensus within countries. Second, economic concerns have gained explanatory power over cultural concerns over time. Third, attribute-based preferences for immigrants vary considerably depending on citizens' underlying immigration attitudes. These findings shed new light on ongoing debates and point to fruitful areas for future research.